30footFALL Celebrates 20 Years of Christmases and Converse

With due respect to the Hates, Really Red, Spunk and all the bands that have come before and since, for a certain generation of fans, 30footFALL is where Houston punk begins and ends. Thanks to years of nonstop touring, a string of uptempo albums, and high-profile compilation contributions, perhaps no one has done more to spread snotty Houston attitude from coast to coast.

Even those who missed out on the band's late-'90s heyday have heard tell of countless sweaty Christmas shows at Fitzgerald's, where 30footFALL has been holding court every December since the Clinton Administration. Next week, the band returns to its traditional holiday roost in the Heights to celebrate 20 years together. It's a major milestone that few groups reach, particularly in the weird and wooly world of Houston punk.

Naturally, founding a local institution was the last thing on their mind when Rubio Cisneros, Tony Avitia and Butch Klotz met while attending Sam Houston High School back in the day.

"I didn't really think we'd make it to five years, much less 20," says Cisneros, who would soon move from drums to bass. "When we first started out, we worked our butts off; we advertised a lot. We flyered everywhere we could and we put stickers all over everything. Any pay phone in Houston had a sticker on it, any drive-through window. We started building up a little following."

In less than two years, that little following grew to thousands, making the group one of the city's top draws. As the momentum swelled, 30footFALL shuffled its lineup a bit. Ativia left the group to concentrate on I-45 and guitarist Chris Laforge stepped in, lending a new edge to the band's sound. Their 1995 debut, Divided We Stand (Fuzzgun Records), would be a breakthrough for the group, leading to sold-out shows and choice touring opportunities.

"'Divided We Stand' was the first song we wrote as a band together with Chris, and that ended up being one of the songs," says Butch Klotz, the group's fearless front man. "That was really exciting, because things kind of really took off at that time. We were writing a lot and practicing a lot, and started to really care about what was happening."

Outsiders began to take notice, especially the touring acts that 30footFALL was outdrawing in their hometown. A mid-'90s gig with Strung Out led to another break when that band's bassist, Jim Cherry (who has since passed away), placed a call to Fearless Records.

"We played with Strung Out here in town, and he liked us," Cisneros says simply. "He called Bob Becker, who was the owner of Fearless Records, and pretty much forced Bob to sign us. Hearing other national acts tell us how good we were or what they thought about us, I think that was when we knew we really had something."

By 1997, 30footFALL found themselves at the top of a lively, tight-knit Houston rock scene highlighted by the band's unforgettable annual throwdowns at Fitz on Christmas Day. As much a local tradition as the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker Market, the Christmas shows have kept throngs of rowdy fans coming back year after year even as the demands of grownup life have slowed the band's activities considerably over the past decade.

"Originally, Spunk did Christmas at least two years in a row, and it was always a fun show," Klotz says. "I guess we'd been doing the band for about a year when we heard Spunk was not doing a Christmas show, and we said, 'Let's do it.' It turned out to be pretty good; now, it's ridiculous.

"For some reason, the Christmas show brings people out that haven't been out in a long time, or they'll bring their kids," he continued. "It's a good atmosphere. It's not your typical Friday-night show."